Two Rhode Islanders sue Target, alleging negligence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Two Rhode Islanders have joined disgruntled shoppers from Colorado to Miami in suing Target over a massive security breach that compromised as many as 40 million customers' credit and debit card data.

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By
Katie Mulvaney
Posted Dec. 27, 2013 @ 1:02 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Two Rhode Islanders have joined disgruntled shoppers from Colorado to Miami in suing Target over a massive security breach that compromised as many as 40 million customers' credit and debit card data.

William B. Knowles and Patricia A. Doyle filed suit in U.S. District Court, accusing the retailer of negligence and violating the Stored Communications Act. They are seeking unspecified damages.

Peter N. Wasylyk filed the lawsuit on behalf of Doyle and Knowles the day after Target acknowledged that the credit and debit card information was compromised between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. It was one of the largest breaches ever of consumer data.

According to the lawsuit, Knowles used his debit card at a Target store in Rhode Island Dec. 14 while Doyle used a credit card at a Rhode Island Target Dec. 1, 6, and 8th.

"By failing to take reasonable steps to safeguard sensitive consumer financial data, Target has knowingly divulged customer credit and debit card account information and PINs that were carried and maintained on Target's remote computing service solely for the customer's payment verification purposes," the suit says.

As a result of the company's "failure to exercise reasonable care and use commercially reasonable security measures," the company made Knowles, Doyle and others into targets for identity theft, the suit says. Their financial information and money from their bank accounts was stolen, the suit says.

In addition to damages, the suit seeks for Target to provide credit monitoring to Knowles, Doyle and all others affected.

The company issued a statement that additional forensic work revealed that encrypted PIN data was removed along with customers' names and card numbers. But Target said it believes the PIN numbers are still safe because the information was strongly encrypted.